Promise of a great weekend!

A lot of us are yet to recover from the high voltage clash of ‘Raees’ Vs ‘Kaabil’ on January 25. That war of supremacy is still on and the final verdict will come later.

Today is however the day to focus on an under rated clash of two very different thrillers, which will unfold on screen. The much publicised and bigger brand called ‘Jolly LLB 2’, which has none other than the most dependable war horse of box office called Akshay Kumar will clash with a totally underrated movie with almost unknown stars, ‘The Ghazi Attack’.

Here are some observations you might find worthy enough to look forward to the next Bollywood weekend. Both movies have a totally different package, visual feel and story lines. Yet both of them, if you look hard, belong to the same genre – high drama thrillers.

Both are plots of those, who have odds pitted against them, taking up on a powerful nemesis that does not play by rules or bends rules to suit the goal.

That is why if you can read through trailers, then as a movie buff you should look forward to both these movies.

‘Jolly LLB 2’ starts with an obvious advantage of being a more famous movie’s sequel. The first one was a surprise / rocking hit and therefore ‘Jolly LLB 2’, given that Akshay is now the protagonist here - the producers are ensured of higher footfalls for this one.

This advantage in itself is also a risk factor. Bollywood is not exactly a great sequel making place. Subhash Kapoor’s last attempt ‘Guddu Rangeela’ did not exactly set the box office on fire. ‘Jolly LLB’ was quality high drama and an epic clash between Boman Irani and Arshad Warsi on screen.

If the screenplay falters even marginally or Akshay and Annu Kapoor do not deliver the same quality of clash. The disappointment then could spell doom for this one.

‘The Ghazi Attack’ starts with an obvious advantage of lesser known names. If the biggest star in ‘The Ghazi Attack’, from a Hindi movie audience perspective is Tapsee then we can surely put the tag of underdog in capital letters on this movie.

Sure some of us might want to pitch the case of Rana who has a huge screen presence and for sure is a well known face, up north, too post ‘Baahubali’. However, the fact remains that for reasons best known to northern audience or those, who watch Hindi movies down south, male actors of southern origin have always found it difficult to get acceptance in mainstream Bollywood movies.

So, ‘The Ghazi Attack’ remains the underdog and am sure the exhibitors might not give it such a huge screen count too given the fact that ‘Raees’ and ‘Kaabil’ too are yet to run out of steam at box office counters.

Having given all the weaknesses of ‘The Ghazi Attack’, here is what could be its biggest scoring point over ‘JL2’. First, this one is being distributed, like ‘Baahubali’, by Dharma Productions. Let me tell you Karan Johar does not distribute stuff till there is some content in it. You don’t believe me then watch ‘Baahubali’ that was the last Rana movie he touched.

The trailer of ‘The Ghazi Attack’ seems to be pointing to a taut war thriller movie - a genre which was last attempted by JP Dutta in ‘Border’. Sure, that one was ably carried by the then box office juggernaut called Sunny Deol, but let me tell you that many cynics had written obits of ‘Border’ from the muhurat shot day.

But, the Indian audience actually loves war movies provided they are presented well. So, if director Sankalp has executed a great screenplay – given that this movie is also based on true incidents of the 1971 war, then ‘The Ghazi Attack’ could well be the movie, which pulls the carpet from under the feet of a more fancied bigger movie.

As a movie buff, I am not complaining. I am ready for this battle too.